SRMC is Among Top 5% in Nation

Southeastern Regional Medical Center is proud to contribute to Lumberton, NC’s, ranking for top cities for hospital care

Lumberton, N.C. (January 24, 2012) – Southeastern Regional Medical Center announced today that HealthGrades, the nation’s leading independent healthcare ratings organization has named it a Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™. This prestigious distinction places Southeastern Regional Medical Center among the top 5% of hospitals nationwide for clinical performance.

HealthGrades Hospital Quality and Clinical Excellence study, released today, objectively identifies those hospitals with the best overall clinical performance across 26 medical diagnoses and procedures that the organization rates. These 263 top-performing hospitals represent only 5% of the nation’s hospitals and each is designated as a HealthGrades Distinguished Hospital for Clinical Excellence™.

”Southeastern Regional Medical Center can be proud of the contributions of its physicians, nurses and staff in achieving outstanding patient care,” said Kristin Reed, MPH, HealthGrades vice president of hospital ratings and author of the study. “Lumberton and the surrounding communities are fortunate to have access to some of the highest quality hospital care in the nation.”

According to Southeastern Regional Medical Center President and CEO Joann Anderson, Southeastern has a focus on providing high quality care. “Our results validate we are achieving that level,” said Anderson. “We continue to identify areas to improve. I am extremely proud of our health care team.”

Unlike other hospital quality studies, HealthGrades evaluates hospitals solely on clinical outcomes: risk-adjusted mortality and in-hospital complications. HealthGrades analysis is based on approximately 40 million Medicare discharges for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010. Using these top-performing hospitals as a benchmark in this year’s HealthGrades study, HealthGrades quantifies the impact of differences in hospital quality in terms of lives lost and unexpected complications.

The HealthGrades study found that:

Distinguished Hospitals can be found in 38 states. The top cities for hospital quality, determined by having the highest percentage of Distinguished Hospitals in a Designated Market Area (DMA), are found in 26 states.

Specifically, Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence had a 30.07% lower risk-adjusted mortality rate and a 1.86% lower risk-adjusted inhospital complication rate among Medicare beneficiaries compared to all other hospitals.

In fact, if all hospitals performed at the level of Distinguished Hospitals for Clinical Excellence, 165,704 Medicare lives could potentially have been saved and 6,800 Medicare inhospital complications could potentially have been avoided.

About Southeastern Regional Medical Center

Southeastern Regional Medical Center, a non-profit organization, is a Magnet organization and accredited by The Joint Commission. The medical center is licensed for 452 beds and offers a combination of acute care, intensive care and psychiatric services to more than 14,000 inpatients and 78,000 emergency patients annually. The Medical Center is a comprehensive health care system which offers a wide array of health care services through its affiliated divisions. Learn more about Southeastern at www.srmc.org or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/srmclumberton.

HealthGrades Hospital Quality Distinctions

As part of this study, HealthGrades evaluates each of the nation’s 5,000 nonfederal hospitals in 26 procedures and diagnoses, allowing individuals to compare their local hospitals online at www.healthgrades.com. HealthGrades hospital quality distinctions are independently created; no hospital can opt-in or opt-out of being evaluated, and no hospital pays to be evaluated. Mortality and complication rates are risk adjusted, which takes into account differing levels of severity of patient illness at different hospitals and allows for hospitals to be compared equally.

About HealthGrades

HealthGrades, headquartered in Denver, Colorado, is a leading provider of comprehensive information about physicians and hospitals. More than 200 million consumers use the HealthGrades websites, including HealthGrades.com and BetterMedicine.com, to research, select, and connect with a physician or hospital, and use its comprehensive information about clinical outcomes, patient satisfaction, patient safety, and health conditions to make more informed healthcare decisions and take action. Find more information about our products and services at HealthGrades.com. Follow us on Twitter (@HealthGrades) and Facebook for news and updates. More information on how HealthGrades guides Americans to their best health can be found at www.healthgrades.com.